Merlo Station High School Health Center
Merlo Station High School Health Center, a school-based health center located in Merlo Station High School, Beaverton, Oregon, is the result of a partnership between the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) School of Nursing and the Beaverton (Oregon) School District. Merlo Station High School is an alternative high school serving approximately 350 students in a Community School Program, a Natural Resources, Science and Technology Program, a Community Education for Young Parents Program, which includes an on-site childcare center for the children of students, and several smaller programs designed to meet the needs of students in the district. In 1994, the Health Services Advisory Committee of the Beaverton School District identified a need for comprehensive health services for students and children of students in attendance at Merlo Station High School, and, wishing to have a health promotion focus, approached the OHSU School of Nursing for assistance. The Health Center, which started in the fall of 1994, is directed by Sheila Kodadek, Ph.D., RN, a professor of child, adolescent and family nursing in the OHSU School of Nursing. Two faculty staff the Health Center, Carol Stampfer, MSN, FNP, a family nurse practitioner (0.5 FTE) and Susan Hazel-Georgetta, MN, PMHNP, a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (0.6 FTE). These faculty, in collaboration with Merlo Station administration, faculty and students, have designed a comprehensive health program that includes school-wide health education and promotion, primary care for Merlo Station students, and well-child care for the infants and children in the childcare program. In addition, undergraduate and graduate nursing students in child, adolescent and family nursing, mental health nursing, community health nursing and primary care clinical rotations participate in delivery of health services and in classroom and school-wide health programs.